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Friday, June 10, 2016

Discussing Game of Thrones: The Broken Man

* Spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen “The Broken Man.”

Ah, well, it's another late-ish recap from me this week.

Where in Seven Hells Are the Opening Credits?

Instead of the episode beginning with the credits, it immediately opens with a scene of a community building . . . a sept, maybe? Everyone is hard at work, including a guy chopping wood who turns out to be . . . Sandor Clegane. Yes, the Hound lives! And now the credits roll.

Hey, Ray

So the Hound was saved by this guy named Ray (had to Google that because I don't remember his name being mentioned? But then I am going to be a year older on Sunday so maybe it's just memory failure.), who leads this little community. Ray is a very charismatic, eloquent speaker, as we'll continue to see in this episode.

Margaery & Olenna Play a Little Pictionary

Having repented to the High Sparrow's satisfaction, Margaery is wearing her little antler crown again. She's also now dressed very demurely. In a moment of hella awkwardness, the High Sparrow lectures her about how Tommen has gone to him about Margaery's non-performance of her wifely duties. In addition, the Sparrow makes an oblique threat against Lady Olenna. When the latter tries to talk to Margaery alone, Margaery won't dismiss Septa Unella from the room. Olenna demands that her granddaughter leave for Highgarden, but Margaery turns the conversation around and tells her grandmother that she should be the one to leave straightaway. Margaery also presses something into Olenna's hand, and once the Queen of Thorns is outside and alone, she looks at the scrap of parchment, which has a drawing of a Tyrell rose on it.

SNOW!

Tormund is doing his best to try and convince the Wildlings to fight for Jon, even though they originally signed up to fight the White Walkers and not the northen houses. Jon warns them that they're still very much in danger from Ramsay. Wun Wun stands up and says, "Snow." Would you really want to argue with Wun Wun?

Olenna 1, Cersei 0

Cersei and Frankengregor pay Lady Olenna a visit. Cersei questions her about leaving King's Landing while Loras is still in a cell, which prompts Olenna to go off on Cersei. Cersei admits she's to blame for the mess they're in and says that they need each other. Olenna, however, is still planning on hightailing it back to Highgarden.

You Call This a Siege?

Bronn is back! And he's traveling with Jaime, of course, this time to the Riverlands to take back Riverrun from the Blackfish. The two guys are totally not impressed by they Freys' siege efforts so far, and when they arrive on the scene, the Blackfish is staring down from the castle ramparts at his enemies, who are threatening Edmure's life. Dear Uncle Brynden is like, eh, just kill him and get it over with. Jaime orders the Freys to feed Edmure and clean him up, and he's going to have a a little chat with the Blackfish.

Lyanna Mormont FTFW!

Someone give this girl her own TV show—DAMN! Lyanna Mormont, Lady of Bear Island, totally, utterly, and completely steals this scene, in which Sansa and Jon both woefully fail to make their case why Lady Lyanna should help them take back the north. Davos, however, proves much more adept at pleading their cause; his interaction with Lyanna reminded me a little of all his poignant scenes with Shireen Baratheon. In the end, Lyanna pledges the fighting men of Bear Island—all 62 of them.

Kingslayer. Blackfish.

The Riverrun drawbridge is lowered for Jaime, who gets absolutely nowhere during his brief conversation with the Blackfish. The latter is neither impressed with finally meeting the Kingslayer face-to-face, nor with Jaime threatening to bring a sizeable Lannister host down on Riverrun.

Not Even Davos Can Save This One

The next stop for Sansa, Jon, and Davos is House Glover, whose lord is resolute in his refusal to provide men. The pain of losing their castle to the Ironborn while Robb went south is still very fresh, and in this case, the north remembering backfires on Jon and Sansa.

The Broken Man #2

Yara and Theon apparently really did steal the fastest ships in the Iron fleet because later in the episode we find out that they've already been spotted in Slaver's Bay. Yara and the rest of the Ironborn are enjoying some, ahem, onshore revelry while Theon sits there miserably. Yara tells him that if he's so broken and can't go back to being Theon Greyjoy, he should end his life. Sisterly love, Ironborn-style.

Dear Littlefinger, Please Send the Knights of the Vale

Jon, Sansa, and Davos are back at their makeshift camp. Jon is worried that the snow will end their fight before it even starts, so they can't afford to lose any more time gathering more men. Sansa, however, doesn't agree, and at the end of the scene, she's writing a letter to someone. That someone has to be Littlefinger.

That's One Hell of a Speech

We check in with Ray, who's talking about his past life as a not-no-nice-guy to a rapt audience that includes the Hound. The Hound truly seems to be moved by Ray's speech, in which Ray says that it's never too late to come back. Three shifty looking men from the Brotherhood Without Banners happen upon the community and not so politely ask for horses and food. Ray welcomes them to stay for a meal but that's all that he can offer. The men leave, but the Hound senses future trouble from them.

In Which Arya Fails to Watch Her Back

In Braavos, two men are discussing the Iron fleet being seen in Slaver's Bay. Arya walks up to them and throws lots of coins down on the table, booking passage on a ship bound for Westeros the next morning. That's not a quick enough departure, however, as Arya runs into an elderly woman who turns out to be the Waif. The Waif promptly stabs Arya repeatedly, and when we last see Arya, she's stumbling through the streets, bleeding out badly.

The Ax Man Cometh

The Hound is still chopping wood when he hears horses. When he arrives back at Ray's community, he finds everyone, including Ray, dead, killed by those men from the Brotherhood. We last see the Hound grabbing his ax.

In the Next Episode

Cersei chooses violence against the Faith Militant. Jaime and Brienne meet up in the Riverlands.

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comments:

Lyanna Mormont's scene was easily the best one in this week's episode. That little girl is a pistol. Which I gathered from that letter she sent a season or so ago.

The Siege against the Blackfish was hilarious. The Frey's are ill equipped to deal with someone as seasoned as the Blackfish. And he basically just told Edmure, "Eff Yo Life!", and I kinda lived for it. I think I'm having a bit of a hard time separating Edmure from Black Jack Randall. But, I never much liked Edmure either.

The Hound. I honestly can't remember if I knew he survived in the books or not. I vaguely remember somebody hanging out with like mountain folks or something but I can't grab hold of it. I need to go over my notes or just re-read the last two books again.

As for Arya... I think Arya is playing them somehow. I also almost believe Jaqen is still training her whether she knows it or not. By now Arya should be smarter than to be out conspicuously flashing money and just chilling on a bridge when the waif is after her. I hope my theory proves correct.

Whenever I see Edmure, I think of Black Jack Randall, too, lol. I've never been an Edmure fan either, but I think it's cool that Tobias Menzies came back to reprise the role.

I don't remember what happened to the Hound in the books, either. When I think about it, I don't remember quite a bit of what happened in the books, lol. And now that the show has really gone off on its own, separate path, I find myself more and more trying to recall if things on the show were at all possibly foreshadowed in the books.

I hope Arya has some kind of plan at work. She definitely should have known better than to be so visible in public like that. I guess we'll find out soon!

I thought this one had a solid opening. Although I cringed whenever I heard "Ray"- I was thinking this was septon Meribald or someone from the books. But oh well. I think High Sparrow went too far threatening Olenna. I mean Margaery was just acting but even if she wasn't that might have been a tactical error since she wouldn't want anything to happen to Olenna. And Lyanna Mormont was awesome. Loved her scene there, and I was like are Sansa and Jon tongue tied or what? Not very effectively stating their case.

I thought the Jaime/ Blackfish angle was done well, although Jaime still makes me wince on this show. I think the actor playing him could do fine w/ the book material if they wrote him that way, although that scene was close to the books. And I'm curious about the Brotherhood w/o Banners- are we going to see a certain someone???

"onshore revelry" lol. That Yara and Theon scene was pretty good- I hope she gets to do some things because I'm kinda liking her character on the show. She should be on the Seastone chair definitely. And are they killing it with the location work or what? Some of the scenery is just awesome.

I was glad Olenna realized how much danger she was in if she stayed in King's Landing. I'm very interested to see what Margaery's game plan is.

I'm feeling more and more like a certain character affiliated with the Brotherhood is going to turn up very soon, even after the producers have repeatedly denied this. But then, they swore up and down that Jon Snow was really dead, sooooo . . . anything could happen, lol!